AGENCY
NEW DELHI, Mar 3
The coin fell in Deepti Sharma’s favour on Lucknow’s WPL debut and UP Warriorz had little hesitation in bowling first against Gujarat Giants. This is the first time the Ekana Stadium is hosting a game in this competition. It is the official home of the Warriorz. Warriorz, who are placed third on the table, made a couple of changes. They brought in Georgia Voll, who came in as a replacement player for Chamari Athapaththu after she left for national duty, to the XI immediately in place of the out-of-form Tahlia McGrath. They also left out Saima Thakor for the second time this season for left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana, who came into the WPL last year, ten years after last playing a match for India. Voll won the women’s debutant of the year 2024 at the ESPNcricinfo Awards recently. Giants, who are at the bottom of the pile, went in unchanged, keeping belief in a side that defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their last outing. The pitch at the Ekana Stadium had a slight covering of grass and was a mixed-soil surface. One square boundaries, as Natalie Germanos put it at the pitch report, was “rather deliciously short” at 50metres with the other measuring 59metres.
The straight hit was also short in comparison to Bengaluru and Vadodara, measuring 66metres.
UP Warriorz: 1 Kiran Navgire, 2 Georgia Voll, 3 Vrinda Dinesh, 4 Deepti Sharma (capt), 5 Shweta Sehrawat, 6 Grace Harris, 7 Uma Chetry (wk), 8 Chinelle Henry, 9 Sophie Ecclestone, 10 Kranti Goud, 11 Gouher Sultana
Gujarat Giants: 1 Beth Mooney (wk), 2 D Hemalatha, 3 Harleen Deol, 4 Ash Gardner (capt), 5 Phoebe Litchfield,6 Deandra Dottin, 7 Kashvee Gautam, 8 Bharti Fulmali, 9 Tanuja Kanwar, 10 Meghna Singh, 11 Priya Mishra
